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Thursday, December 11, 2014

Findmypast releases over 3.4 million British Trade Union registers along with millions of new UK, US, Australian and Irish records

The following is from FindMyPast.

Findmypast releases over 3.4 million British Trade Union registers along with millions of new UK, US, Australian and Irish records

Findmypast is pleased to announce the release of over 3.4 million British Trade Union Membership registers as part of this week’s Findmypast Friday.

Every Friday, thousands of new records are released on our dedicated Findmypast Friday page to explore over the weekend. This week’s additions also include over 60 million England and Wales Births and Baptisms, 3.6 million new Irish Dog Licenses, new Peninsular War records, over 1.7 million South Australian records and over 28,000 new PERSI articles.

Containing over 3.4 million records, the Trade Union Membership registers consist of digitized images of original records books from 9 different unions. The documents include details about individual members such as payments made, benefits received, names of spouses, and a number of unions published profiles of their members or those who held offices. Many unions kept detailed records for when a member joined, paid their subscription, applied for funeral benefits or superannuation (retirement). These records allow you to follow your ancestor’s progress within the union and perhaps uncover previously unknown details of their working lives and careers. The documents can also include details about the trade unions themselves, such as directories of secretaries, meeting dates and times and items of trade union business. Many trade unions also included international branches from Ireland to Australia to Spain and Belgium.

Over 3.6 million records have been added to our collection of IrishDog Licence registers. Now containing over 6 million records, the Irish Dog Licences list not only the name, breed, colour and sex of your ancestor’s four legged friend, but also the owner’s address and the date the licence was issued, making them a valuable census substitute.

Indexes to over 28,000 new articles have just been added to over 2,000 PERSI periodicals.These include magazines, newsletters and journals, according to location, topic, surname, ethnicity and methodology.

The new Peninsular War, British Army Officers 1808-1814were compiled by Captain Lionel S. Challis of the Queen’s Westminster Rifles shortly after WW1. Using Army lists, Gazettes, despatches, official records and regimental histories, Challis gathered information on more than 9,600 officers who fought for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars and recorded them on index cards. Each record contains an image of the original handwritten index cards and a transcript.

Over 60 million International Genealogical Index (IGI) English birth and baptism records have been added to our collection of UK births and baptisms. Spanning the 437 years between 1538 and 1975, these new additions bring the total number of records in the collection to over 237 million.

South Australia Births 1842-1928contain over 727,000 records and date back to when the compulsory registration of births first began in 1842. Sourced from an index transcribed by volunteers from the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc., each records consists of a transcript that usually includes the child’s full name, gender, date of birth, place of birth and registration number. The names of both parents will also be included and in some cases the mother’s maiden name will also be present. South Australia’s colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province.

South Australia Marriages 1842-1937contain over 457,000 records. Each record includes a transcript that can contain a variety of information such as the first and last names of the bride and groom, their ages, birth years, marital status, the date and place of their marriage as well as their fathers’ first and last names.

South Australia Deaths 1842-1972 contain over 605,000 records and span 130 years of the state’s history. Each record consists of a transcript that usually lists the deceased’s full name, gender, status, birth year, date of death, place of death, residence, the name of the informant who notified authorities of their death and their relationship to the informant.